Humanity's New Hope
by ShanTV Broadway
Summary: Within the chaos of Apocalypta's reign, a new beginning lies in the fate of an unborn life...a rewrite of the Billy/Daisy storyline, may contain certain spoilers!
1. Chapter 1

A terrified scream pierced the air. Billy scanned around the abandoned train yard.

"What the hell was that?"

Glancing over at his partner, he nodded to her as he cocked his gun. "I'll be on your six," he said. "Just lay low."

"Not exactly the easiest thing anymore," Daisy murmured to him before they went opposite sides of the railcar.  
She paused as she drew out her magnum, pressing her free hand to a crick in her lower back. Her swollen round belly quivered as her unborn baby gave a strong kick.

"Easy in there, kid," she whispered as she crept alongside the tracks. "Mommy knows what she's doing."

Out of nowhere, her gun was kicked from her hand. Johnny Vermilion leapt out of the abandoned locomotive and grabbed Daisy roughly by the shoulders. His maniacal chuckle hissed her ear as she struggled against his grip. She finally pulled away from him and reached for her gun.

"Uh ah ah, blondie," Vermilion had his pistol pointed directly at her head. Daisy caught her breath and held up her hands.

"Take it easy! What do you want, freak?"

"Apocalypta's taking over any town she wants." He glared at her devilishly grinning, his beady eyes shifting to her pregnant belly.

"Want that little twerp of yours to stand a chance? You and your boyfriend either join us or stay out of our way…"

As the demented thug snickered, Daisy glanced over his shoulder. Billy had come around the other way and had his piece in hand. Grinning, she dropped her gun as watched as he struck Vermilion in the head knocking him to the ground.

Daisy hovered over the two men and pulled her knife from her boot as Billy pressed the muzzle of his handgun to their enemy's brow.

"I'm taking you to the sheriff," Billy sneered.

"I think we ate him!" Vermilion hissed, and he laughed again viciously.

Tying the villain up and throwing him in the backseat of the jeep, Billy went and gave Daisy a hand as she climbed into the passenger seat.

As the engine revved up and they pulled out of Harper's Junction, Vermilion went into more psychotic hysterics.

"Gag him!" Billy said sternly. "It's gonna be a long ride…"

Daisy unbuckled from her seat and reached into the back, stuffing a long strip of cloth down Vermilion's throat before tying another over his lips.

She sank back down and strapped herself back in, letting out a winded sigh.

"You okay?" Billy murmured to her.

"Yeah," she nodded. "Just…maybe moving in a moving car should be something to avoid from now on." Smoothing her hand over her engorged abdomen, Daisy shifted her gaze ahead to the unending desert as they drove on.


	2. Chapter 2

Johnny Vermilion escaped his prison cell and death sentence long before the sunrise.

Sheriff Cooper sent word across the desert of Mayor Shelby's orders to put together a team of those willing to go and hunt down Apocalypta and her minions once and for all.

When the announcement reached them Daisy immediately volunteered herself and Billy, which didn't seem ideal to him.

"Babe come on, you're not doing this," he told her. "It's one thing just handling copperheads here, but going up the mountain?"

"I told you, I'm not just going to stay on my ass and do nothing while you're out there risking yours? Who knows if whoever else Cooper finds won't go against you or even each other? I'm not letting that happen!"

She took his hand. "Our baby deserves to be born into a world that's worth living in, with a father to love and protect it."

Billy sighed and stared at his feet, then looked back into Daisy's eyes. "All I want is both of you safe."

"We're safer if we're together," she said softly, putting his hand to her belly. He held her close. She sighed, burying her head into his shoulder.

Even if they did, and this so called team they'd be part of was any good, there was no guarantee that they could take Apocalypta down.

Not unless they were able to bring him home.

…

 _Jack,_

 _I'm writing to you because I know Billy won't. Apocolypta has completely destroyed Harper's Junction and soon she'll be coming for Desert Springs. If we're gonna stop her, we need you._

 _Please, let's put the past aside, at least for your soon to be niece or nephew._

 _Daisy Jane_

...

A couple of days later, back in Desert Springs, Billy and Daisy were introduced to their new comrades. By first impression, the three men seemed exactly as they looked: a sloppy gun slinging drunk, a laconic but stealth samurai type, and a short but sturdy Hispanic with artillery almost bigger than he was.

But they appeared to be serious about the job at hand as Cooper spoke, explaining the progress made tracking Vermilion since his escape. Maybe these outsiders were the right men for the job after all. Except they had never ventured out in the deserts once!

Jack had to have gotten her letter by now, but Daisy hadn't gotten any word back so there was no telling whether he would come.

By nightfall as the entire team was gathered in the town saloon, both Billy and Daisy had long accepted that she had completely wasted her time trying to get his brother back.

"Told you Jack wouldn't show," Billy strode past her in a huff.

She followed him out to the alley behind the street, where he stood sulking.

"Don't be like that, baby." She sighed crossly. "You should've known he was going to let you down!" Billy snapped. He turned away from her, regretful of his tone at her. "You shouldn't even have bothered."

Daisy came closer to him and reached for his hand. "Do you really carry all that much hate?" she asked sincerely.

"I hate that he's never been there…I hate that he's miserable…and I hate that I've given up one him." Daisy hugged him.

Suddenly they were interrupted by a spasm of growling from the end of the alley.

It was Cooper…but he wasn't definitely not himself anymore.

"Get back!" Billy stepped in front of her, firing a bullet into their former ally's head. The creature fell to the ground lifeless. But he hadn't been alone.

Billy and Daisy rushed back inside the saloon and alerted the others just a swarm of copperheads came through the door behind them.

Bullets flew, glass smashed, flesh was ripped apart as the five warriors fought against the undead. Despite their best efforts, the barkeep and few concubines that the men had called for fell victim to the attack.

"They're still coming in!" Billy called out. Sure enough, copperheads kept flooding inside, one after the other.

One came up behind Daisy and grabbed her arm, and she yanked it away so fast that she lost her balance with her large stomach pulling her to the floor. Quickly she turned so she would fall on her back, but came face to face with the copperhead right on top of her.

She struggled, panicking. "Billy, I can't get him off me!"

Then a gunshot rang out and the ethereal being slumped to the floor next to her. Daisy looked up and saw a tall figure with a familiar face… and hat.

"Jack!"

He offered her his hand and helped her back onto her feet. "I got your message."

"I didn't think you'd come." She said softly, looking from him to Billy, who stopped his gunfire and stared at his brother with an icy glare.

"Jack? About time you showed up."

…

At sunrise the next morning, the survivors of the late night massacre were gathered with Mayor Shelby at the bar. "Well, Cooper's dead, so what's the plan?" the aptly named Whiskey Joe asked aloud, pouring himself a glass.

"You guys finish this," the mayor announced, "and I'll give you any damn thing you want."

Daisy looked up from her spot next to Billy, rubbing a sore spot on her belly. "Cooper had a plan. I think we should just stick to it."

"What about him?" the short gunman, who called himself The Vaquero, pointed to Jack. "He's supposed to know how to survive out there."

"Hey Jack, what do you think?" Whiskey Joe slipped his pipe back between his teeth.

Jack's eyes glanced up for a moment, then looked off into the sunlight streaming through the windows.

"Everybody's gotta die someday."


	3. Chapter 3

Now with one more to round out the team, together they set out on their journey across the desert.

Right away it was clear it wouldn't be easy.

Jack brought them to an abandoned mining yard, insisting they'd find spare ammunition from a stash that had been left there. After splitting up to search the place, there was an unexpected ambush of copperheads straight from the tunnels. With everyone else scattered Billy and Daisy were cornered by two of the creatures, one going after each.

Despite her condition, Daisy was fast and easily shot down her target, but Billy was knocked down. She reached them just as the copperhead was about to take a bite out of his neck and blew off its skull.

"Thanks, baby," Billy caught his breath as she knelt over his head to kiss him, relieved he was alright.

But this attack was far from over as more copperheads kept coming. Together Billy and Daisy fled for the jeep, hoping to round everyone back up and make a break for it.

Only Jack was able to escape his fight along with a mysterious woman, whom they realized was Sirene, the warrior priestess that the Komodo had been talking about.

They sped out of the invaded yard, heading back out beyond the fence as the copperheads were left in their dust.

"Where's everyone else?" Daisy called out.

"We'll meet up," Jack replied as they drove out back onto the road towards the mountain.

"We're just leaving them?!" Billy argued.

"We'll send them our location."

…

The car was soon heading into the hills, towards the desolated forest that was resting beneath the summit.

Eventually they stopped for a moment to give Daisy a chance to rest from being behind the wheel, and Billy soon nodded off with her. Their time was cut short after a sudden loud combustion appeared ahead of them from what they had thought was an abandoned truck. Apparently it was a trap set by one of Apocalypta's goons and Jack had walked into it, but luckily Sirene wasn't far behind and cut down the would-be killer.

The four continued on the road upwards, passing through and eliminating a small cluster of copperheads feeding off a body.

Sirene went up close to the corpse and examined it as she proclaimed it was a sky burial, and that as wolves and crowd would come to feed off the deceased his spirit would return to the circle. Whatever that meant.

"We're getting close," she determined.

Not close enough to arrive before the sunset, though. Just as it was starting to get dark, Sirene halted them again and pointed out a cave hidden in the trees. "It's a difficult hike from here," she said. "You should all rest. We head out at dawn."

Billy, Daisy, and Jack looked ahead, then followed her to their new shelter.

Lighting a fire as the night settled in, they sat quietly examining the cave, which was really an entrance to an abandoned mine.

"So these sky burials, someone teach you this?" Jack looked over asking Sirene.

She went on to tell of her grandmother and how she had taught her all she knew. Even more surprising was that it had been her grandfather, a copper miner, who had been one of the first victims of the epidemic.

"He turned first, then his crew," she said solemnly. "She had to kill him herself."

Daisy looked over at Billy, putting her hand over his as she cradled her belly over her arm. How could anyone bare having to destroy the person they loved?

As they fell asleep that night, she prayed for safety, both for the four of them and their child.

…

The next morning they drove on. After a short time, they came to an open plain with ratcheted fencing around it. Struggling to break free was an entire copperhead army.

"Let's wipe 'em all out! What are we waiting for?" Billy said, reaching for his gun.

Jack held back his brother. "We don't have enough ammo for all of them."

"To slay a dragon," Sirene murmured, "you don't cut off its claw…"

"You cut off its head." Billy understood, nodding.

The main path up the mountain stood beyond the corral, cutting off the road for the jeep to take them any further.

Now they would have to go on foot.

 _NOTE to Readers: I highly suggest you watch the entire movie before you keep reading this. I focus on just one storyline of the plot, and theirs is much more to the film than I will get to._


	4. Chapter 4

With Sirene up ahead, they began their hike along the cliffs going up the mountain. As Jack trekked ahead following their guide Billy kept Daisy close next to him, offering her his hand when there were some steps that could throw her off balance.

At one point as they got any deeper into the trail, Sirene stopped them.

"Step where I step," she instructed. "Expect traps up here."

Suddenly a roamer appeared out of nowhere right beside her. Jack acted fast and shoved his boot into it, knocking it off the cliff and down to the canyon below.

"And copperheads." Sirene finished. "There will be copperheads."

They shoved on, climbing up further and reaching some level ground on the edge near the next peak.

Billy had Daisy walk ahead of him, watching her footing closely as she followed behind his Jack.

At one point she stopped, pressing her hand beneath her bulging stomach.

"Hey, you okay?" Billy came up next to her. "Fine, I'm fine." She said quickly, clearing her throat.

Her boyfriend glanced up ahead, watching his brother following Sirene's lead.

"I still don't trust her." He muttered.

"Well, Jack does." Daisy looked over at him.

"Yeah, well for all we know, she could be delivering us to Apocolypta herself."

She scoffed. "Good plan. Try to turn a bunch of gunslingers into pet copperheads?" Daisy wrapped her arms around his shoulders, kissing him. "They're never gonna get us."

She smiled. "Come on." She started onward, and Billy sighed going after her.

He didn't get far, though.

As his foot stepped into the broken twigs and leaves, his ankle was caught in a snare that pulled hard and flipped him onto his back, striking his head and dragging him into the woods.

Billy's brain was pounding as he squinted up at the blurry figure hanging over him. He strained to get a better look at his captor, but effort was too much for his possibly concussioned skull.

"Go to sleep." A rough voice hissed.

Everything went black.

…

"Billy! Billy!" Daisy called, her voice echoing through the canyons below. He had been right behind her a moment ago, and now suddenly he was gone.

It had to have been one of Apocalypta's goons; she must have had one being a lookout for intruders, and he must have found Billy and captured him.

He had probably been taken straight into the mountain to the psycho witch's lair. The only way in for the rest of them was to continue to the top.

After hiking up a little while longer, Jack held a hand out to Daisy from the crumbling ledge he stood upon.

"Here," he said gently.

She reached out and grabbed his entire arm with both her hands as she pushed herself off of the lower ground, as Jack's other arm reached around her waist and pulled her in.

"Thanks." she nodded.

It was eerily quiet, not a single noise except for their footsteps atop the graveled surface of the peak. An arrangement of rocks and stones were spread out across a plot of the cliff, presumably some sort of burial site.

Standing above all this was the giant monument of the lady of the mountains. The towering figure loomed over the entire mountainside, its blank eyes keeping watch over the earth stretched out below and beyond.

Daisy was overwhelmed by the awesome sight. "I've never seen her this close."

"Few have." uttered Sirene.

"Where's Apocolypta and the rest of her men?" Daisy looked around, trying to find any hints to where Billy might have been taken.

"They live in the mines below." Sirene informed her. "We must find a way in."

"Let's go find my brother." Jack said firmly, and they spread out to begin their search for a way in.


	5. Chapter 5

The far side of the mountaintop went into a downwards slope, surrounded by boulders and jagged rocks. An old shack stood near the edge of the continuing forest that was spread off down the other side of the peak.

With Jack and Sirene still making their way down the slope, Daisy pulled out her gun and slowly stepped inside the shack; this seemed like the only way they'd be able to get into the mines.

A rickety old staircase led her down into a secret basement, eerily too quiet. She gripped the pistol a little bit tighter in her hands as she slowly walked further into the hidden underground space.

Daisy felt a shift in her belly, as if her baby knew that she was probably leading them straight into trouble. She blocked out the thought of the possibility as she walked into the next room.

It appeared to be some sort of laboratory at first glance, but soon she saw some familiarities that reminded her of a slaughterhouse. Dark stains were encrusted on almost every surface, and a pile of internal organs was splayed out on a filthy table slab with rusted instruments beside them.

Daisy's stomach quaked and she backed away, putting her hand over her mouth trying hard not to gag.

She turned to move on to the next room, and in an instant a copperhead was inches away from her face. The creature growled, held back with a forest of chains

"Daisy!" Billy's voice rang out from the side of the room, where he stood locked up in a storage cage.

"Billy!" She kissed him through the grating of his makeshift prison cell, their fingers intertwining through the bracketed fence.

Suddenly and unexpectedly Johnny Vermilion appeared out of the shadows and grabbed her. A pack of copperheads was right behind him, held back by dozens of chains dangling from the ceiling.

Daisy rammed her elbow into him and broke free, pulling out her knife. In a split second he lunged for her wrist and pulled her back into his clutches. Her weapon fell from her fingers, and Vermilion caught it and brought the blade up to her throat.

"Let her go, Johnny!" Billy seethed.

Vermilion pressed himself up against Daisy's back. "I'm kinda surprised to see her," he hissed.

His filthy scruff of a beard brushed against her cheek as he expelled his hot rancid breath into her ear.

"I guess that last stand didn't quite work out."

"Hang on, baby!" Billy tried to comfort her. His eyes went to his woman's expectant form, groped and smothered by the henchman's grimy tattooed forearm.

"If you hurt her…our child…!" he threatened.

Vermilion retrieved a hand held radio from his pocket. "Tell Apocalypta I'm just cleaning up here," he called in. "Go ahead, give 'em all a head start."

He chuckled deviously as he held the edge of the knife closer to Daisy's neck.

"Billy…" she trembled, tears brimming in the corners of her eyes.

"You made a deal with the devil, boy." Vermilion sneered. "They _both_ will make a nice specimen to my army…"

He raised the dagger against the jugular vein, ready to finish the girl off.

A gunshot rang out from the other end of the room. Vermilion howled in pain, releasing Daisy from his grasp. He dropped her knife and was clutching his hand as a stream of blood ran down his wrist.

Billy turned and saw Jack standing on the opposite side, pistol in hand and Sirene by his side.

Vermilion fled through a set of swinging doors as Jack shot open the lock to the cage. Billy rushed out, wrapping his arms around a shaken Daisy crumpled on the floor.

"You're okay…you're okay, baby. You're okay," he comforted her, running his fingers through her blonde curls.

"We must follow him," Sirene said, looking ahead to the metal saloon doors. "This looks to be the mine's entrance."

Jack stood over his brother, looking down on him as he continued to console the traumatized mother of his child.

"Come on," he said firmly. "We'll get that son of a bitch."

Billy draped Daisy's arm around his neck and shoulders and brought her back onto her feet. "I'm gonna kill that bastard," he seethed heatedly, holding her close to him. "I swear to God!"

The four of them ventured through the doors and found themselves inside the mines. An all too familiar cackle was echoing through the caverns as together they trekked deeper into the darkened quarry.

Vermilion's laughter seemed to grow and fade as it echoed through the mine tunnel.

"Jack!" Billy exclaimed, drawing his gun. Jack turned to see a copperhead standing right behind him, but then collapsed to the ground as his brother's bullet shattered its skull.

Further behind the now fallen creature, a dozen more copperheads were approaching from another passageway.

"Move!" Jack called out. He started to run ahead with Sirene, but paused when he saw Billy trying to coax a weary Daisy along.

Without another thought, he dashed over to the woman's other side and wrapped his arm around her. He glanced over at Billy, who quickly looked away from him and back to his lover.

"Come on baby, we gotta go now!" he said urgently.

They charged deeper into the mines, stumbling through passages with little or no light to guide them. The copperheads remained on their tail, closing in on them further as they continued to run.

"How is this happening?" Daisy called out disconcertingly.

"Son of a bitch let us right into his trap!" Jack determined as they fled through the tunnels.

On and on they went, navigating their way through the mine. Vermilion's incessant laughter returned, vibrating through the passageway as a second set of his mistress' pets joined the pursuit.

Soon Sirene led them up into an elongated tunnel, with sunlight streaming through the cracks of a set of enormous metal doors. Jack and Billy brought Daisy beside her and ran ahead to swing open their exit. They all rushed outside just as the copperheads were about to reach them, and quickly blockaded the doors with a wooden plank.

Billy went back to Daisy, looking around at the familiar forest setting. "Nice shortcut," He scorned at Sirene.

"Not quite Desert Springs," the female warrior noted. "Follow me." She headed across towards the new cliff side, and the others followed right behind.


End file.
